


Candlelight and Roses

by flaming_muse



Series: Conjunctions [1]
Category: Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Genre: April Showers Challenge, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2003-08-19
Updated: 2003-08-19
Packaged: 2017-10-18 06:44:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 740
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/186109
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/flaming_muse/pseuds/flaming_muse
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Spike sets the scene.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Candlelight and Roses

**Author's Note:**

> Originally posted on my LJ on August 19, 2003.

Just about the last thing that Xander expected to see when he walked down the basement stairs after patrol was soft candlelight reflecting off of a pristine white tablecloth and illuminating a table set for dinner for two. A single red rose in a delicate vase sat between the immaculate place settings and another perfect blossom lay artfully across one of the gilt-edged plates.

"Ahn?" he asked, peering into the darkened corners of the basement. They were in an off-again phase of their sort-of-relationship, but this could be her way of getting them back together. It wasn't really her style, though; she usually just appeared, disrobed, and requested that their parts interlock. He wasn't sure if her straightforward attitude or this romantic little scenario freaked him out more. "Uh... Anya?"

"Your bird's not here," came Spike's voice from behind him, and Xander spun around. "It's just me."

"Spike! What the hell is going on? Why are you here?" Xander asked. "You moved out, remember? You know, when you took my radio? What, did you need some more of my furniture for your new crypt?"

"Did you ever think that I might have missed you?" Spike looked oddly meek as he stood there with a bottle of wine in one hand and his gaze focused somewhere on Xander's chest, as if he couldn't quite work up the nerve to meet his eyes.

"Let me think about it... okay, that would be a definite 'no'. Have you run out of money again? Need me to buy you more blood?"

"I set up this dinner, didn't I?" Spike walked around Xander and began to pour the wine into the gleaming goblets. "Bought candles, dishes, food. How could I have done that without dosh?"

"You're the evil mastermind. You tell me."

The vampire turned to face Xander, his eyes wide and pleading.

"Is it so hard to believe that I wanted more of your company?"

"Since you insulted me and my life at every chance you got, pretty much, yeah," Xander replied.

"Maybe I was covering up my true feelings. Maybe I find you irresistible, with your big, come bite me eyes and your hot, tanned body," said Spike.

"Yeah?"

Spike stepped closer and his voice lowered into a deep, seductive rumble.

"Maybe I've realized that there's more to the world than killing things, you know? Maybe the chip has given me time to think about my actions. Maybe I want to change, and maybe you're the one who has inspired me. Maybe I want to be better, to be like you, to fight even when the odds are against me, even when I'm handicapped with this chip."

Xander tensed as Spike traced his fingertips down the human's chest, and he unconsciously leaned into the soft breath as Spike murmured in Xander's ear.

"Maybe spending hours in that chair at night with nothing to do but watch you sleep made me realize just how attractive you are. Maybe I want to make you mine, Xander. Maybe I want to seduce you, to lose myself in you, to make you scream my name with pleasure as I give you everything you have always wanted."

Spike's eyes were huge, dark, and directly in front of Xander's, and Xander was having trouble catching his breath at the unaccustomed proximity.

"What do you say, pet?" Spike asked in a whisper, his lips ghosting across Xander's cheek.

Taking a step back, Xander crossed his arms over his chest and leaned back against the workbench.

"I say that your acting abilities are worse than your breath, fangless. Pig's blood is really not a turn-on to human nostrils."

Spike dropped his act with a nearly audible thud. His stance shifted from appealing to annoyed, and he glowered as he patted his pockets for a cigarette.

"Fine, then. I was just trying to be all nice, you know. Show you a good time. You should be flattered that I went to the trouble." He lit the cigarette from one of the candles on the table.

"Flattered, repulsed, tomato, tomahto. So what do you really want, Spike?" Xander asked.

"See, I've got this new crypt, but it's what you'd call a bit of a fixer-upper. There's this squeaky hinge that needs to be replaced, and one of the windowsills is rotten..."

 _Now_ that's _a far more likely scenario than a grand seduction_ , Xander thought and began to gather his tools from the workbench.


End file.
